Bond of Blood

by Roberta Gellis

  "Ride?" She turned pale. "You cannot even walk. Where should you want to ride?"

  "I must have your father out of London and safe out of the queen's hands. Answer my question, will it kill me to ride hard for a day and a night perhaps?"

  Loyal, disloyal—it did not matter any longer what Cain thought of her. Leah only knew that he was endangering himself for his most vicious enemy, that he was placing himself, weak and nearly helpless, in her father's hands. "You cannot mean to save him," she cried. "He is an evil man. He plots against your life. Will you free him from all restraint to make more plots?"

  There was love, full measure and overflowing. Even her fear of Pembroke could still her tongue no longer. Cain drew his wife to him.

  "Have I any choice?" he asked gently. "He is bound in blood to me. Can I raise my hand against your father?"

  "He has raised his against you!"

  "Ay, and I make no jest to say I would gladly have him dead, for he would serve my purpose as well that way, but I am sufficiently blackened with sin. I cannot. Partly because I cannot take a man's life by stealth and he is too old to fight, and partly because … You think you would not care, sweeting, but in the end you would. It is not good to lie abed with the man who spilled your father's blood."

  "He is no father to me. His seed filled my mother's womb, but more than that, except to hurt me, he never did," Leah replied.

  "Enough, my love. You do not know your own tenderness of heart. Now you hate because he has hurt me and you believe he will be able to hurt me again. That is not true. Moreover, when he is dead, if you thought yourself to blame it would grow like a canker inside you. Tell me, can I ride?"

  "It will not kill you, but if you take a fall—"

  "I am not in the habit of falling off my horse." Cain replied dryly but with a smile. "Where is that man we sent to my father?" He rose and began to pace the room again, to be interrupted by Giles who ushered in a man garbed in the dress of a leper with only his vicious mouth showing beneath his drawn hood. Giles hit the staff so that it gave forth its hollow rattle, and Cain's mouth dropped open in surprise and amusement.

  "Pembroke, by all that's holy!"

  "I can see nothing to laugh at," Pembroke said in a voice quivering with fury. "I never thought, when I asked succor of Lord Hereford, that he would dress me in this insane garb, laughing like a madman all the while. But that is no matter. I have a bone to pick with you, Radnor. How is it that you, my own son-by-marriage, did nothing in all these weeks when I was held by the queen? Hereford must have told you that I was here and meant to come to you. You must have known that I was held in restraint and that the deposition I made against Chester was forced from me by Maud. You could not think that I had willingly put down the words which were read out at the council table. If I wished to say those things, I would have gone to council myself and said them."

  Radnor's lips tightened, but he managed to answer smoothly enough. "Perhaps I thought you did not wish for interference. Perhaps I did nothing because I was too close to death to do aught for anyone. You knew not that I was sorely injured in the tourney?"

  "How could I know, being close confined?"

  Leah gave a strangled cry. "He lies! He lies!"

  "Viper!" Pembroke shrieked. "Do you wish to make bad blood between your father and your husband? It is your place to offer smooth words to make peace. I will teach you to hold your tongue!"

  He raised the leper's staff to strike her. Leah shrank back; Radnor, in his weakness, stumbled and went down on his knees. Quite calmly, Giles wrenched the staff from Pembroke's hand and then went to lift his master.

  "Where do you find such gall?" Radnor gasped, trembling. "How could you dare to go to Hereford after the trick you played him? How do you dare outface me, when— What is the use of words? Let us understand each other. I will get you safe away, if it be in my power, but not for love of you or belief of your lies. I tell you too that you will not have Fitz Richard's lands, for I will free him and Chester also from this coil they are in. For the sake of this 'viper' alone, I will let you live, but—"

  "Very well, very well. I understand you perfectly. You wish to blame me for what was no fault of mine, and no reasoning will alter your stubbornness. I played Hereford no trick. He was drunk already so that one cup of wine made him helpless. If I wished to harm him, why did I not do so then?"

  "Your power to harm even a fly is gone, Gilbert. Hold your tongue."

  All turned to face the voice, which came from the doorway, and Pembroke went grey as ashes when he saw Gaunt. The old man shoved Leah's embroidery frame out of the way and sat down in her chair, casting a disapproving glance at his son. "You are a fool, Cain. I have always said so and always will. What is the use in arguing about something that cannot be mended? Yet you sit here crossing words when it cannot be unknown that a leper entered your house. Is there a reason for such a thing? Strip the garb off this fool, put it on someone else, and send him forth. Then, tonsure me this monk. My daughter-by-marriage has long needed a confessor. Here she has one to hand."

  "Very good, father. He can stay here for a day or two, and then I will be ready to go."

  "What brains you were born with, the fever must have addled. Where will you go?"

  Cain answered without replying directly to the question, that since his father had finished his business in London it was reasonable that he should wish to go home. The following dawn he should do so, openly, allowing the royal guard to examine his men and search his baggage. After he rid himself of royal spies, Gaunt was to turn south and meet Radnor who would have smuggled Pembroke out.

  "Then I will return here, and you can see that Pembroke reaches Pevensey Castle, whence he can take ship for wherever he likes. Hell, I hope."

  "Perhaps your brains are not so addled after all, although I have some matters to add. How will you cover your part in this, Cain?"

  "Oh, Leah will say that I escaped from her keeping and went drinking or whoring or what she will, and that I am fevered again. It will only be for one day and night. I could never hope that none will suspect, but it will need catching me to bring proof. Giles and Beaufort will have to remain behind, of course, to give credence to the tale, but Cedric will be enough for me."

  "Ay, if you get past the gate at all, you will be safe enough. Giles, tell half a dozen of my men to come up here to me and do you see that the others make ready to go. Woman, go to market and buy openly provisions for my troop to carry to Wales."

  In the quiet and enforced isolation that followed Cain's departure two days later, Leah had a chance to catch her breath. When it was sure that he was safe past the gates, she was able to consider a new factor in her situation that distracted her a good deal from her fears. She had a fluttering hope that she could not as yet believe in that she was pregnant, She calculated and recalculated and, though her flux had been delayed before when she was excited or frightened—and God knew she had been both since her marriage—it had never been this late. Still, she was puzzled because she had no other sign; no uneasy stomach, no headache, no spells of dizziness. On her knees before her prie-dieu, she counted the days again. It should have started near the day of the tourney, so it was more than three weeks late. If it were only true that she was already increasing! The joy of telling Cain! Surely no wife could do more for her lord than to bring him a child in the first year of their marriage. Surely the proof of her value as a breeder would bind him still closer.

  At a discreet distance, Beaufort watched his mistress at her prayers. Hating himself, but unable to resist the temptation, Sir Harry was using the period of his lord's absence to bring himself to Leah's attention. He followed her constantly with his eyes; he leapt to help her up from her prie-dieu when she was ready to rise; he brought flowers to brighten the dark room; he pressed wine on her because he said she was pale. And Leah smiled upon him readily, and held out her hand to him warmly, seeing in his actions nothing beyond the proper attention of a vassal to his lord's lady. Partly she was
blind because she was innocent, and partly because all her real attention was concentrated on her inner hopes and fears.

  If he took her, Beaufort thought, he would deserve to die, and if he did not, he would surely be slain by the madness that was tearing him apart. Giles came up from the guardroom to sit with Leah, and Sir Harry went out into the antechamber. His expression was one of such deep grief when Hereford came bounding up the stairs that the impetuous young earl stood stock still.

  "I must speak with Lord Radnor."

  "It is impossible."

  "Beaufort, do not block me. I care not what he is doing. I will go in to him even if I must cut you down."

  "I care not for that, but it would do you and him no good. You could jump up and down on him and scream in his ear. He will not hear you. He is raving again. If you do not believe me, I will call Lady Radnor or Giles. They will tell the same tale."

  "My God, my God," Hereford groaned. "At such a time, when we need him so badly."

  "If you will tell me what it is … Mayhap he will come to his senses and we can tell him." After all, Radnor would be back that night or early the next day, and if anything important had happened he would want to know.

  "Where is Pembroke?"

  "I do not know. He came here, but my master was out of his wits and the guards were searching. The earl thought it best to send him to Arundel. This much we did. We have heard nothing further."

  "You did wrong. If Radnor knew— He will have a fit. Do you know what has happened? The king and his vassals have pursued Pembroke and are besieging Petworth."

  "Petworth?" Sir Harry gasped, "but—"

  "But what?"

  Beaufort managed to stop before his tongue betrayed him. "But why?"

  "Because that is where they came upon him. And Stephen has taken with him every armed man he could muster—the Gloucesters, Leicester … There is not a nobleman's house with anything in it but women. Are you sure you cannot bring Radnor to realize what is happening? I am willing to move in this myself at any risk. I understand that if Pembroke is convicted of treason Maud will put men loyal to her on his lands and all the Marcher lords will have enemies both behind and before as well as the Welsh to fight—but I know not what to do. I have only these few men with me. To fight is hopeless, and the king will listen to no word of mine for he knows me to be no good friend to him."

  Somehow Beaufort managed to convince Hereford that Radnor could not possibly be approached, and Hereford went off grumbling bitterly.

  Chapter 19

  Several days later, legs stretched before him, belt loosened, and replete with food and wine, Lord Radnor smiled patiently at Giles' insistent question.

  "Very well," he said with a soft laugh, "I see that you are angry, being neither blind nor deaf, but I cannot think why. You ask what I was doing at Petworth and how I escaped. I can only tell you again that I was never there. Nor, as you well know, did I ever have any intention of going there." He listened to his master-of-arms splutter with rage for a moment. "But why are you angry with me because you took some harebrained notion from Roger of Hereford? It was you who told me his head was not bolted on right. Why, knowing what you do, did you listen to him?"

  "My lord," Leah interposed, "Giles will take a stroke. Pray do not tease him any more. Truly, we would be glad to know what really did occur if you are not too tired to talk."

  "It is briefly told. Pembroke and I left as arranged without let or hindrance. We rode due south as was planned and made a fair distance that night. No thanks for that was due to Pembroke either. His chest hurt him; his arms hurt him. He was forever tired or cold or hungry or thirsty. You would think that he was wounded in the tourney and I was the fugitive from the reluctance he showed to swift retreat. I do not think I have wailed in my whole life as much as he did in that one night. In any case, we did drag him forward, and early the next morning Philip of Gloucester sent a warning to the king that Pembroke was on his way south."

  "Philip?" Leah gasped, "Philip told—"

  Cain patted the hand that clutched his arm. "It was by our arrangement, my love."

  "I suppose you did not think us trustworthy enough to keep the secret," Giles growled.

  "It is easier to look surprised when one is surprised." Radnor laughed. "It was simple enough. My father gathered some of Pembroke's men who were loose in the town and, when Stephen was in sight, bade them flee into Petworth."

  "Well," Giles muttered grudgingly, "it is not so mad as I thought. What went forward then?"

  "My father and Pembroke, of course," Cain said with mischievous solemnity.

  "Pah!" was Giles' only rejoinder to that piece of nonsense, and Leah giggled and pulled her husband's ear.

  "We parted at Cocksfield," Radnor said more soberly. "I hope that my father and Pembroke made Pevensey before moonrise the next night. I came home." He laughed softly again. "I was full sorry to miss the siege at Petworth. I would have loved to see the king's face when the castle gates were opened, as it were in fear and trembling, and Stephen entered in triumph—to find nothing."

  "Then is the king still at Petworth?" Leah asked. She had not released a grip on some part of Cain's body since she had first embraced him. It was as if she could not believe him to be back safe without physical contact.

  "I cannot think so, although it would be all to the good. Soon as they enter, Stephen must learn the truth and go on to Pevensey, but by then my father will be safe away."

  "Nay." Giles grunted. "Pevensey is impregnable and fronts on the sea so that Gaunt may go whenever it suits him best, or not go at all. Stephen will never take him there."

  "I still think it dangerous," Leah said. "You do not know my father. In anger or spite, he could open the gates to the king."

  Radnor frowned at his wife. "Treason could open the gates, but he would be mad to do it."

  "If the water should fail in this dreadful drought or he should be hungered by a long siege—"

  "There can be no want at Pevensey. Springs flow in the bailey so there is always water, and the serfs go down by leather ladders to the sea to fish. Moreover they can even unload small boats that stand in under the cliffs and are therefore safe from the attackers. No, Pevensey will not be taken, unless— In any case, we have taken precautions against any length of siege. Why do you think William of Gloucester, Leicester, and the other neutral lords rode with Stephen? Only to convince him that a siege was hopeless. Even Philip—my poor Philip! If I had known he would be so mad as to go, I had never confided these plans to him."

  "We must all die," Giles said. "Mayhap you have done him a mercy."

  Leah said nothing, only tightened her grip on her husband's shoulders, knowing that he could have no comfort on this subject until he accepted the fact that Philip was lost to him. Lord Radnor set his jaw for a moment and then continued speaking as though there had been no interruption to his tale.

  "Those lords rode, not to make war, but to make talk. In a week Stephen himself will be returned, convinced that Pembroke has fled." Cain closed his eyes and sighed deeply. "Pembroke will be in Wales; I will be abed. All this rushing and riding and shouting and whispering will be as if it had never been. What a waste. What a waste. We are just where we were when we first arrived in London."

  "Not quite, my lord," Giles said bitterly. "Pembroke is free to make more trouble, indeed, but Chester is in prison and Fitz Richard's estates forfeit. You had best bestir yourself a little to think of some remedy for that."

  "Oh, Giles, may he not rest even for an hour in peace? Do not forget, my sweet lord, that good has come of this too. Roger of Hereford is not only free, but has learned a bitter lesson. He will look twice before he sets his foot in another trap."

  "Speaking of Hereford," Giles grinned, "had we not better send him word that you may be spoken to again before he leaps headlong into more trouble?"

  "Yes. As a matter of fact, I need him. I have thought much on the subject of Chester and I see light, but I must have Roger's help in this
." Cain bent his head forward as a warm caress touched his neck. Leah had been fooling with his hair and tickling his ears for some time; now she had put her lips just above the collar of his gown and nipped him gently. It was immediately apparent to Lord Radnor that he had done enough for his country that morning. "Do not send for him now, or if you think it necessary, send and say I have just dropped asleep again. I have a sudden and great desire to do some more riding."

  Giles looked startled. "To where? Will you need me, my lord?"

  "Oh, I do not intend to get anywhere in particular, and I certainly hope I will not need you." Lord Radnor lowered his lids and laughed suggestively. "I only need you when I have trouble, and I hope to have no trouble in mounting this mare."

  Laughing, Giles shook his head. "Ay, there are some things a man must do without help from others. Being born is one of them, and making children is another. Mind your sore ribs if you cannot wait."

  Leah had walked away to cool her hot face in the breeze from the window. It was bad enough for her husband to inform the entire room of his intentions, but she wished he would not speak of her to others in terms of her purpose in life as a brood mare. Usually Cain was thoughtful about not making a point of the one real use he had for her. Usually, Leah thought, he exhibited a genuine or pretended pleasure in her company that nearly obscured the reason for his lovemaking, nearly made her believe that it was his desire for her alone that initiated his caresses.

  A burning resentment filled her. Why should she love him and he desire her only for the fruit of her womb? She wished to cry out that she was real, a person as much as he was, that she could think and feel and should be valued for more than the children she would bear. Some day she would find the courage and tell him; then Leah sighed. So she would tell him, and either he would laugh good-naturedly at her foolishness—as if a dog had tried to speak—or he would be surprised and disgusted.